Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger of The New Republic suggest that the green eco-friendly bubble has already burst. They conclude that this isn’t the first time an eco bubble has inflated then burst. First signs of an eco-friendly society emerged in 1969 with an industrial pollution fire on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, generating public outrage.

…these past bursts of environmentalism waxed and waned with the rise and fall of the economy. But, perhaps more significantly, the green bubbles inflated during highly polarized periods in American society and politics, often fueled by disastrously violent episodes in foreign policy.